What is ACICIS

ACICIS (pronounced "Ah-chee-chis" as an Indonesian would) was established as a non-profit organisation in 1994 to develop and coordinate high- quality, semester-long study programs at Indonesian partner universities, for Australian university students. Hosted by Murdoch University, ACICIS includes as members most of Australia's leading institutions in the field of Indonesian studies. National collaboration enables ACICIS to draw on expertise across all Australian universities and maximise efficiency in organising in-country study. We also provide shorter individually-designed language programs at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta, to suit government and business.

ACICIS has become the largest consortium of its kind in Australia, and we believe the world's leading provider of access for foreigners to study at Indonesian universities. Our students graduate amongst Australia's best speakers of Indonesian. We have developed a range of study options in Indonesia and provide a unique support network for students and others who wish to experience living and studying in Indonesia. Past ACICIS participants include honours students, TAFE students, Indonesian language teachers, international students and private individuals. Two things are certain - firstly, the student's language ability will improve dramatically, and secondly, everyone will have a fantastic experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives. ALL ARE WELCOME.

ACICIS has a new logo, you can see it here.

ACICIS Resident Director

A vital part of the support that ACICIS provides to students in-country is the full-time ACICIS Resident Director. The RD provides academic and pastoral advice to students, liaises with Indonesian authorities and universities, and generally makes sure that ACICIS programs run smoothly. At the moment the Resident Director is Dr Phil King. He lives in Yogyakarta at the ACICIS house in Bulaksumur, next to UGM. He can be contacted by email at acicisjogja@jmn.net.id - for general information, please contact the ACICIS secretariat first.

Phil King is a former ACICIS student who completed one year of in-country study over the course of 1998-1999, during which he conducted research for his honours thesis on the role of political security organisations in the 1998 parliamentary elections.

Following the completion of undergraduate studies at the University of Wollongong, he commenced a PhD at the same institution. Having previously studied language at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani, southern Thailand, his PhD was a history of regional development initiatives in the northern Straits region, focusing on the Thailand-Malaysia borderlands in particular.

Over the past five years he has balanced field research in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand with teaching commitments in the University of Wollongong's Department of History and Politics and the Department of Asian Studies at Sydney University. After a lengthy period of research work and teaching, Phil is thoroughly enjoying his return to Yogya, spending the weekends getting hopelessly lost along the beautiful southern Java coastline.

ACICIS Consortium Director

The Consortium Director is responsible for the overall management of ACICIS and advises the reference group on determining ACICIS policy.

The current ACICIS Consortium Director is Professor David T Hill. Prof Hill is the Head of Asian Studies at Murdoch University, in Perth, where he is a fellow of the Asia Research Centre for Social, Political and Economic Change. His research interests are in Indonesian media, literature and cultural politics, and he is a NAATI accredited English-Indonesian interpreter and translator.

ACICIS Deputy Consortium Director

Associate Professor David Reeve is the ACICIS Deputy Consortium Director.

He has been visiting Indonesia for 38 years, as a diplomat, researcher, historian, visiting lecturer, beach comber and project manager. He has lived in Indonesia for eleven years, and worked at four Indonesian universities. He was a founding lecturer in the Australian Studies program at Universitas Indonesia in the 1980s. He had a three-year stretch at Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang in the 1990s, as resident director for the ACICIS program. He has written on Indonesian politics, Indonesian language, and Australian-Indonesian relations. David retired from his position at UNSW in July 2006. The piss off/piss up party to lament his departure is still spoken of in tones of awe. Late tokens of esteem are still accepted.

ACICIS Secretariat Administrative Officer

The ACICIS Secretariat is located at Murdoch University in Western Australia and is staffed on a full-time basis, overseen by Consortium Director, Professor David Hill.

The Secretariat's Administrative Officer is currently David Armstrong. David completed a year with ACICIS at UGM in 2002 and another year at Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang in 2006. While in Malang David did his second semester field research on tourist visitor levels at archaelogical sites in East Java. He takes photos of Indonesian signs and symbols.

If you are interested in applying for any of the ACICIS programs, please contact David at acicis@murdoch.edu.au and he will be happy to help.

ACICIS Secretariat Development Officer

The current Secretariat's Development Officer is Claire Harding. Claire completed a year with ACICIS at UGM in 2003 and then went back in 2004/05 to study at UNY. Claire holds a first class Honours degree (2006) from The University of Western Australia. She was very fortunate to have A/Prof. Lyn Parker as her supervisor.

Her thesis, ‘Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Indonesia: Investing in the Future?,' explores the change in attitude, ideas and behaviours towards sex and sexuality that has been occurring among a significant proportion of the Indonesian youth population, in the face of globalisation and modernisation. In 2007/08 Claire worked as a translator/editor for an NGO in Yogyakarta called The Institute of Islamic and Social Studies (LKiS) through Australian Volunteers International (AVI).

See some of Claire's photos from Indonesia here.

ACICIS Yogyakarta Administrative Officer

Sinta Sulistianingsih Padmi (everybody calls her Sinta) is the ACICIS Administrative officer in Yogyakarta. She was born in Yogyakarta 24 years ago. She lives on the north side of Yogya in Kaliurang, a beautiful small town on the lower slopes of Mount Merapi. She has lived in Kaliurang for her whole life with her parents and two sisters. Previous to working with ACICIS she studied in the English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University. She completed her undergraduate degree in August 2007 with a major in literature, helping out ACICIS students along the way as a tutor at the Inculs language centre. She likes reading books, especially comic books and novels, as well as travelling and listening to the music

ACICIS Secretariat Media Officer

The ACICIS Media Officer, sadly stuck in Australia for the time being, is Alec Morris. Recently back from studying at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, he is currently finishing a degree in Languages & Asian Cultures at Curtin University. Around work, study, and travel he volunteers as an Indonesian language tutor at local high schools, loves taking photos., and attempts to record his own music in a neglected home studio. He misses real nasi goreng, nongkrong time at Midi's, and being the village bule.

Lestari Widyastuti

It is with great sadness that ACICIS announces the death on 11 October 2007 of our ACICIS Administrative Assistant in Jogjakarta, Ms Lestari Widyastuti.

Lestari had been in hospital for several weeks with pneumonia and respiratory complications. However, her health deteriorated suddenly and unexpectedly and she passed away in the early morning. After rituals at her family's residential compound near the Jogjakarta palace, she was laid to rest later that day. The ACICIS Resident Director, Dr Philip King, attended on behalf of the consortium. ACICIS students and friends also paid their respects throughout the day.

This is clearly a very distressing time for the ACICIS 'family' and for all who knew Lestari. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family (particularly her two sisters) and friends in their grief. Lestari had many, many friends amongst the 'keluarga besar ACICIS' who will be greatly saddened by her passing. She worked unceasingly over more than a decade to help ACICIS students and staff, and contributed greatly to building precisely the kinds of 'bridges' that ACICIS was set up to encourage. As former Resident Director Associate Professor David Reeve has said, 'we could not have had a more devoted person working for ACICIS'.

Lestari will be greatly missed by all. I have asked Dr King to pass on my personal condolences -- and those of ACICIS as an organisation -- to Lestari's family at this very sad time.

Professor David T. Hill
ACICIS Consortium Director
12 October 2007

Please see our condolences page